Gun Owning Smokers

[Kenyth]

I'd take him to the range, and start preaching gun safety. I believe, (and I suspect you do too) that's the best precaution.

Will

Though I think five is too young to comprehend guns, death, and gun safety, I agree that understanding weapons and knowing safety is the key. Mom won't be having any of that though, even when it's time. I'm not sure why she married a war veteran with a gun cabinet if she was this squeamish about firearms.

[MarineOne]

Though I think five is too young to comprehend guns, death, and gun safety, I agree that understanding weapons and knowing safety is the key.

Kids are visual learners. Why do you think Seasame Street, Barney, TeleTubbies, etc., are so popular? It's geared for the way "they" think, so when we teach them something we need to do the same.

I took the curiousity out of guns in my home by getting them BB guns, making them treat them like they were real, and taking them to the range and letting them shoot.

We took some one gallon water jugs (Wal-Mart sells them for like 40 cents) and some red food coloring (Dollar Store, 99 cents) makes the visual part of your kid based training happen. Add the food coloring to the water, give a shake, and let them shoot it with their BB guns. I told my boys to shoot the water jugs, and once in a while you'd see a bubble or two from a slight puncture, but nothing more. Then I turned around, got them set with ear plugs, and explained why we don't touch Dad's guns. 7.62x39 HP from my SKS made those water jugs jump off the ground and blew colored water all over the place. The look of shock on their faces let me know I made my point, and then we talked about what would happen if the water jug was a person like Mom or Dad, or a friend they had over to the house.

This was a few years ago, and my oldest is now my shooting buddy. My youngest has natural talent (shoots better than his brother) so I'm going to try to get him into target shooting and I'm replacing the upper on my AR so I can put glass on it for him to use.

It's all about what you teach, and how you teach it.